Here are snippets from some of our blogs last week. The blogs, and others, can be seen in their entirety at www.norcalblogs.com.

From “Bullfight” by Dan Nguyen-Tan:

I suspect the Chico Chamber of Commerce and other tourism boosters won’t be highlighting Chico’s arson rankings to prospective visitors. …

Maybe it’s convenient (for the Fire Department) to blame students and the homeless. I guess if Chico wants to lower its unenviable arson rate, we should keep students away from couches and help the homeless find shelter.

From “Commission Impossible” by Lon Glazner:

In its first money-saving decision yesterday, the Finance Committee held a charrette without paying a consultant.

Councilor Scott Gruendl, a dynamic and bright individual, led a discussion on how to educate the public on the budget problem. I’ve been through a few of these dog-and-pony shows — usually the marker is held by a consultant that showed up in a Porsche.

Having a councilor hop up and take the position of ringleader was more effective. At least you knew the person writing the comments down was a decision-maker, and it wasn’t costing the city any money for him to play that role.

From “But This is Chico, too” by Steve Brown:

I hope the university has developed more sensitivity toward historically significant buildings than it showed in the past. In the 1980s, when it was proposing to tear down the so-called Language Houses on property it owned on Third Street between Chestnut and Hazel streets, it displayed a lack of concern that still rankles some Chico residents.

From “The Litter Box” by Travis Souders:

Unless compiling golf scores is some ridiculously tedious, difficult task, I’m at a loss as to why media outlets (the Chico Enterprise-Record and the Chico State SID included) aren’t hearing about tournament results from Washington the day of the event. The Western Washington tournament, in which the Wildcats men’s team took third place, didn’t have its results relayed until Wednesday afternoon despite finishing Tuesday.

From “The Nosebleed Section” by Leland Gordon:

A note to fans of prep programs: If I don’t pick your team to win, it doesn’t mean I hate that team or its kids or its coaches or its fans. I only have two teams to pick from, and one is gonna be picked to lose. Sometimes that’s your team.

In the end my predictions are just silly little numbers that elicit conversation, e-mails, phone calls and banter. They have no bearing on who wins a game and they have no effect on our coverage of the 14 local teams we cover.

From “Buzz Blog” by Ryan Olson:

With the fall TV season is in full swing, my free time is going to be totally sucked dry as I try to keep my TiVo’s hard drive from filling up. One thing I’ve noticed is that geeks are going to be pretty much ruling the roost this fall (until the cancellation ax falls).

From “400 Years of the Telescope” by Interstellar Studios:

And so our morning began … with one dying Chevy pickup that had been giving us trouble all week, but we never imagined it would completely stall about 10 times, the final three less than two kilometers from the airport. … Thus our day had to improve.